Category Archives: Grad School

Day 561: Weigh In Day

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(Tonight’s episode of MadMen was the best one this season so far. I love this show.)

Why Hello folks!

So this is my last week of school. Ever. It’s going to be a photo finish. 40 pages in five days. Holy crap. What then you ask? Well, my parents are coming the week after that (SO EXCITED!) and then… I guess we’ll see…

Alright, now that I’m done being mysterious…

So the second half of this week was incredibly stressful for a myriad of reasons and I really thought it was going to affect my weight loss. I still somehow came out losing weight! I lost 1.2 pounds. Not a a huge loss, but I will take what I can get at this point. I’m still making good progress even though life is insane right now. I’m going to try to count points this week, if anything I’m not going to eat out as much. I guess we’ll see how it all goes. On a note of awesomeness though, I have finally figured out how to tie a self tie bow tie! It’s epically awesome and I have to thank our friends Brian and Kimi for teaching me. (Oh, and Megan is a bow tie stud now too! We are a family of Bert Coopers now.)

Breakfast:I just had multigrain waffles with peanut butter. Magical.

 

 

 

 

Lunch:After church, we had to leave kind of quickly so I could spend the rest of the afternoon locked up in the frozen tundra of a library. I tried the Healthy Choice tortellini meal. I was really impressed with how much food there was!  Awesomeness.

Oh yea, the green beans were good, but they needed a little salt. Be forewarned.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pre-Dinner Snack: So before the epic meal we had planned, Megan made the best bowl of guacamole ever. (The best, Jerry! The best!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dinner: The other night we saw this episode of Man v. Food and they featured this burger called the “Juicy Lucy” from Minneapolis. (Actually two restaurants claim that they created it and one of them actually spells Juicy without the i.) Anyway, the Juicy Lucy is burger with cheese in the middle. We decided to recreate this awesomeness and I think we held our own. To further assert our culinary awesomeness (and my goal to become the next dean of Bar-B-Que University) I even grilled bacon in my grilling basket. The first batch was good, but the second batch was a little grey. I’m not sure what that was all about, but it still was delicious.

So that was about it. Like I said earlier, it’s going to be an epic week. If I can lose weight this week, I can lose it any week. See ya tomorrow.

 

Day 558: Thursday and Stuff

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Hello!

I love all of you. There, I said it.

I still can’t believe my Facebook Page got to 200+ Likes last night!

This week I was feeling a little sluggish and lazy. Luckily I was able to pull myself out of it and have an awesome day! Good things. Alright, let’s get at it.

Breakfast: This morning, as per usual, we went to Atomic Coffee before class and school and stuff. I just had a bagel with butter and a little honey. It was fantastic and filling. Awesomeness.

Lunch: Today I had to go to a luncheon for a class. I walked from campus uphill both ways (yes, like your parents did when they were kids) to the downtown Double Tree. The menu had a lot of awesome healthy choices, but I was still thinking about getting something a little heavier. That was when my friend Andrew (the Edward Cullen lookalike) told the whole I was his dietician and then asked for a healthy option. It was the conviction I needed to make a much better decision. I ended up getting a grouper sandwich and instead of fries I got a salad with honey mustard. It was delicious, but it was also hard to conceal my picture taking ability in front of a bunch of strangers. When I got home I had a 100 calorie Klondike ice cream sandwich that was awesome. Then I ate two servings of chips.

Awesome Non Scale Victory: So today I was organizing my old fat clothes in order to sell them online (anyone want size 54 khakis or some really nice XXL polo t-shirts?) and then I found these bad boys. I bought these plaid shorts a few weeks before I started grad school. It was like folding up an American flag. Those things are huge. I was huge. Anyway, I held them up, thought for a second, and then got in one of the leg holes. They fit me in the waist. I know I’m not half them man I used to be, but I am making awesome progress. It was seriously the motivation I needed to get focused on losing weight. It also made me proud because this kind of picture is usually in an infomercial for some weight loss cookie or some shake that tastes like ground up chalk. This is proof that all you need is a healthier diet, a good pair of running shoes, a little patience and a persistent attitude. Oh yeah, and a bunch of awesome supportive friends doesn’t hurt either ;).

SAWS:So after that moment of NSV clarity, I decided I needed to keep it up so I can no longer fit in my current clothes and went to the gym. It’s kind of sad because it was one of my last times working out at Leach. I’ve burned a ton of calories in that place. Anyway, I wanted to keep up the same intensity I had when I was working with Joe so I went after it. I divided my hour into three 20 minute segments. The first 20 I did a circuit that involved stairs, burpees, box jumps, jump squats, push ups and running up and down stairs. It was awesome. Then, I got on the ARC Trainer and did 20 minutes on the weight loss setting which was a hill climb pattern of awesomeness. Finally, I did 20 minutes of abs. Elevated sit ups, this weird leg lift row and then holding a plank position. I felt like I made really good use of my hour, I did what I came there to do: sweat through my shirt.

 

 

 

 

Late Night Dinner: After staying on campus to try to get some work done, Megan and I went through the drive thru at Jimmy John’s (the only thing faster than their delivery dudes) and had a Turkey Tom sans mayo and a nice layer of avocado spread. Not to mention their classic pickle. The healthiest drive thru around.

So that was my day. Not too shabby. Although I didn’t write them down, I’m definitely back in the mindset of counting points and being better about what I eat. I was looking at an older post and I realized it took me 4 months to lose the last 15 pounds to break the 100 pound mark. It was because I was kind of a slacker and wasn’t strict with my points. With my new-found love for weight lifting, sticking with my points should be the perfect recipe for some serious weight loss. If anything my body would feel better, and isn’t that what it’s all about? See ya tomorrow.

 

Day 556: Tuesday Town! (Like Taco Town But Better)

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(In case you didn’t get the reference…)

http://www.ebaumsworld.com/player.swf

 

Why hello everyone! I am in between paragraphs of this ginormous case study I am working on so I thought now would be a got of time as any to update you on life.

But a few things first!

First of all, I have surpassed the 150 Likes mark on my Facebook page! Hooray! Congrats to member No. 150: Paula! Thanks for reading and being such an awesome supporter of the blog. I also need to thank Keith (Like No. 149) for letting me now we were that close to such awesomeness! [Insert shameless Facebook page plug here] if you aren’t a Liker? (is that it?) yet on Facebook, stop by and like the page. There is always something funny, helpful or bizarre on there. We have something for everyone. (You’re still here? Go on! Go! Leave! And go Like the Facebook page!)

I WILL MAKE YOU A DEAL!

As of now, (11:04 pm) my page has 158 Likes. If I have 200 Likes by Wednesday at 10:00 pm EST, I will thank every person who likes the page by first name on my Wordless Wednesday video. Challenge accepted? Then start sharing!

OKAY…

Back to business. It’s Megan’s birthday! My beautiful bride is a quarter centurion while not looking a day over XXIV. Megan, even though you share with birthday with Tim Storhoff, Kraft Macaroni n’ Cheese and John Madden, you are still my favorite April 10th birth!

Food time!

Breakfast:I knew today was going to be a doozie of long day, so I went to Atomic Coffee this morning and had the Six Twenty Five sandwich without the garlic mayo. The avocado wasn’t quite ripe, but it was incredibly delicious.

Lunch: Didn’t happen. The sandwich held me over until 4:30 when my stomach decided to mosh with my other organs in defiance.

Dinner: Tonight, we decided at the last minute to go to Mellow Mushroom with our friends Catherine, Tristan and Julie to celebrate Megan’s birth of awesomeness. (Funny story, one of the first pictures of Megan and I was from her 20th birthday when were in college in Abilene. I’ll go on a Facebook scavenger hunt and put it in Wordless Wednesday tomorrow.) Anyway, tonight was $5 calzone night and the waitress suggested adding pepperoni to that bad boy. I had to try it and it was magical. I’ll probably never do it again (the whole extra calories thing) but since I hadn’t really eaten anything at that point, it was worth a shot. Our table also split the bruschetta plate which was awesome too.

Post Dinner: A little later after we got home, I finished off the wings from Harry’s on Sunday.

So at this point I am full. No midnight snacking for this kid. I was also proud of myself because when I went to Pitaria last night I only ate 3/4 of my pita. I realized I was full so I put a napkin over the remainder of my pita, got on my iPhone and totally forgot about the rest of it! I was really proud of myself. While I didn’t do that tonight, I’m going to really try to leave food on my plate for the remainder of the week and beyond. I need to get out of the “make sure you clean your plate” mindset. When I was a kid, I felt like that was the only thing I was good at. It’s a notion that I need to shake because waste makes waste.

Anyway, good luck on the challenge! Time to get to it! See ya tomorrow.

 

Day 554: Easter Weigh In Time!

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Happy Easter everyone!

(Yeah, I know it’s Monday Morning for a lot of yall but it’s still Easter for those on the Best Coast.)

So I figured my weigh in was going to be bad, but it wasn’t as bad as I had thought. (I need to get out of that mindset any gain is bad.) I gained .6 pounds this week. Again, not a ton, but I’m having issues with consistency this semester like I was talking about last night. I just really need to get out of these next three weeks alive and things will get much better.

Breakfast: Before church I had two pieces of toast with peanut butter. Standard yuminess.

Lunch: After church, we went with our friend Julie and her friends Sam and Liz  to Sweet Pea, this awesome vegetarian/vegan place in Tallahassee. Today I had the tofuevos rancheros. It was delicious and fresh. I also I had their cucumber lemonade which is refreshingly awesome.

Later in the afternoon, I had a bowl of Kashi GoLean to hold me over.

Dinner: I gave up deep fried food for Lent so today I was ready for some fried food. I know, this sentence should not be on this blog. Anyway, after Megan’s awesome Old Time concert today, we went to Harry’s for an early birthday dinner for Megan. I had their wings and some fries. Not gonna lie, it was good. I only ate half of my wings and took the rest home.

A lot of Coffee: If you can’t tell, it’s a fun time in my semester so I am relying on coffee to keep me alive. (I prefer working out, but my gym time is a little limited at this point.) Anyways, I had a Skinny Caramel Machiatto at Starbucks and then we went to Atomic Coffee later and I had an iced coffee that had ice cream in it. I’m insane. I need to stop sucking.

So that’s it for today. I’m going to get better. I have to. See ya tomorrow.

(P.S. Mad Men was INSANE tonight. I love this show.)

Day 553: Saturday Things and Stuff

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Why hello.

I have been kind of busy/stressed/exhausted lately. School is driving me nuts. Up to this point, I haven’t been my weight loss on the back burner, but looking back at this semester, I really have. This whole semester, I have only lost something like 5 pounds. I haven’t been able to maintain a constant weight loss at all. I get a second wind every once in a while, but then I fall off. I’m hoping after things will slow down after graduation, but at this point I’m going to try to keep my head above water.

Breakfast: Before my workout, I had two pieces of peanut butter toast. It was delicious.

Workout: Today was my last training session with Joe. Not gonna lie, I was a little depressed. I feel like I have learned so much from him in such a short amount of time. It’s nice that I finally have a regiment to go off of to get ripped… or something. So today we ended with a bang: super circuit with plenty of upper body followed by a few core exercises. I am completely sore. It was an awesome workout (but then again when are workouts not awesome?)

Lunch: This afternoon, we went over to our friend Christian’s house for a musicology party! Christian, our dear vegetarian friend, is a pretty epic cook and when we got there he had already made some delicious food. He made a veggie burger made with pinto beans and other awesomeness. He also wok fried some cauliflower and onions so I got the awesome idea to put said cauliflower and onions on my burger. I was impressed by its awesomeness. After that, I had my share of chips, hummus and other snacks.

Dinner: We were stuffed so we just had microwavable dinners. I had this healthy choice that was severely disappointing. (Maybe I didn’t cook it enough… it was still clucking.) The dessert was okay, but like I said it was a little weird.

So that’s about it. Like I said, it just feels like I’m running through quicksand. I need to get out of this funk. I have the workout down, so I need to get the food back in line to get back to the weight loss stud that I am. See ya tomorrow.

Day 551: Thursday Sadness

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So today I realized that society is sick. Very sick.

Let me start at the beginning. Yesterday morning, I worked out at Leach where I changed and cleaned up for the day in the locker room. So, I worked out in my Five Fingers and then changed in to shoes. During that changing time frame, I accidentally left my FF in the locker room. I didn’t realize it until I was getting ready for my workout tonight, so then I called three different departments in Leach and no one had turned them in. So, my first pair of Five Fingers are now gone. Some freak is wearing my vibrant yellow toe shoes. Who the crap does that!?! Frankly the worst thing about it is they jerk who stole them probably thought they were taking them from some trust fund kid who so they were thinking they were some kind of Robin Hood taking from the children on the 1%. Little did they know they were stealing from a very poor married grad student who spent his Christmas money on a new pair of shoes. (I’m not pouting, but I’m just incredibly frustrated.) Anyway, so it is what it is. Life goes on. Who knows, maybe the folks at Leach will find them or something. I guess we’ll see. Sorry to go all Debbie Downer on you guys.

To compound this frustration, I have been stress eating like a mad man. No bag of chips is safe in my house. I know it’s stress related, but I get scared any time I go in to binge mode. It brings up bad memories and habits. I’m just ready to be done with April.

Breakfast: I had half a piece of toast. Yum. Then I had coffee from Atomic. Awesomeness.

Lunch: I was going to bring a lunch, but in the throws of the morning I ran out of time to make one. Anyway, I went to Pollo Tropical for lunch. The chicken was a little undercooked so if I get food poisoning next week you’ll know why. With that being said, the black beans and rice were delicious. That counts for something.

Snacking like crazy: I had a lot of chips. A. Lot. I’m making Cape Cod a rich company.

Workout: This morning I was in a bit of a mood. I felt sick and fat and weird. I knew that a killer workout was going to be cathartic and exactly what I needed. Joe the Trainer said that today was going to be a free day, so I texted him to tell him to give me the worst cardio circuit he could dish up. It was brutal. A lot of box jumps, squat jumps, resistance bands curls, push ups, and running. After that really intense abs. I was incredibly exhausted, but I felt strong and empowered. I know that sounds crazy, but it was what I needed.

Dinner: Megan made her delicious Chicken Santa Fe. So delicious.

So that’s it. It was a weird day. See ya tomorrow.

Day 548: Monday With Things And Stuff Edition

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I have no clue how my bracket turned out, but I’m sure it was bad. All I know is that Anthony Davis has a legit unibrow. Thanks for making it popular again bro. Now I can stop plucking mine every morning.

So this morning, I got on the scale and I was down to 235.7, which was way more than my 237 yesterday. It’s so weird how your weight fluctuates like that, and I think it supports my theory that your body doesn’t respond to an intense workout until the day after next. That would make sense because I was incredibly sore on Sunday from my Saturday SAWSathon with Joe the Trainer. Anyway, I don’t know what the scale will hold for me this week, but either way I feel awesome right now. Obviously I’m ready to lose more weight, but I think back to how life was at 357 compared to now and just my quality of life has improved drastically. I know I don’t say this enough, but if you are thinking about changing your life for the better, do it. I will always support you.

Alright where were we?

Breakfast: This morning, I went with the classic wafflewich with banana. I bought some new peanut butter yesterday and it seems like the first scoop of peanut butter out of a new jar is always the best. It that just me? Oh well. So between that and a cup of Starbucks Blonde, it was a good morning.

Lunch: Yesterday, I got a Lean Cuisine because they were on sale at Publix. I always like diet food that feels like your cheating, so I bought the sweet and sour chicken. It was amazing! I was really impressed with not only how filling but also how DELICIOUS it was! Well done Lean Cuisine. Well done. (Sorry for no pic. I was too busy eating to look for my iPhone.)

Snack: I had some delicious animal crackers. Yumtastic.

Dinner: (Finally a picture!) Tonight, we cooked up a frozen margherita pizza from Publix. We even added some fresh basil from our little herb garden! We both agreed that the Publix Greenwise pizzas are definitely better than the Kashi pizzas so take that for what it’s worth.

After dinner, I had some popcorn and some chips and salsa. Yumness.

So that was about it for today. Overall not too bad. I will now leave you with this parting shot of Doak Campbell at Florida State. Such a beautiful campus. See ya tomorrow.

Day 547: April Fools Weigh In!

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Gather ’round young children and hear the tale of The Fotographing Fat Kid!

Okay, I’m back. It was a very long and stressful week; sadly the fun has just begun. I am now on the homestretch of grad school. 28 days until I walk across the stage (I wonder who my commencement speaker will be… I’m hoping for Oprah or Al Roker. OR the greatest Seminole of them all: Burt Reynolds.) Anyway, there is a lot to do in 40,320 minutes and it is going to be a strain on my weight loss. Have you may have noticed (for those of you who are doing content analyses on my eating habits) I have eaten out a crapton the past few weeks which may have been to the lack of counting points. Well, my awesome dietary architect of wife has created a two week rotation of meals to cook to minimize the amount of eating out ergo better use of points ergo more weight loss! Hooray! As you’ll see in a bit, we know how to cook delicious comfort food for less calories. (All the comfort food without the greasy Southern Old Woman taste)

So I was actually not too bad this week. Dare I say I was good. But I think my intense Saturday morning workouts are skewing my weigh in numbers a little bit. Yesterday I actually cramped up in the middle of a station of the circuit I was doing. Joe the Trainer said I need to rehydrate more. It was shocking because I have always been the promoter of clear pee, but I guess I need to work on that. Anyway, whether that’s the case I don’t know, but what I do know is that I had a body comp test done on Thursday and I found out that I only have a 23.8% body fat count! Last semester I was at 33%! 23.8% is like borderline obese/acceptable! It feels so great to be far away from morbidly obese. This is so awesome! Finding that out gave me a lot of confidence to keep at it this week. Although my quads and glutes are more sore than ever, I have did awesome things for my body this week and I’m going to keep that trend alive! OKAY! So back to the weigh in, I lost 1 pound exactly. I’ll definitely take a loss and I almost made up for last week’s gain (by .2. Close enough) So now I’m back to 120 pounds lost. It’s a pretty awesome feeling. If I could get to 125 pounds lost by graduation I would flip. April is going to be a month of work. No foolin’.

Breakfast: this morning I had two waffles and a little peanut butter. Then at church, my good pal Julie made some delicious pumpkin muffins so I had two. They were epic! Thanks for being awesome Julie!

Lunch: So the plan was to go home and eat leftovers, but since we haven’t been to the grocery store in a while, we didn’t have any leftovers to eat. So instead, we ended up going to Bandido’s for lunch since it is about as cheap as eating at home. I had the chicken burrito with their legendary chips and salsa. They are even more cheap from 4:20-7:20 everyday when they have $1 tacos that are the size of your head. Today I realized that I need to start eating like I am 235 and not 275. I’m still eating the same portion sizes that I was half a year ago. They way my diet is, I should be able to eat two tacos and be fine because that’s within my points. Has anyone else had that issue when they have lost weight?

Snack: Megan made homemade lattes and then after grocery shopping she made pineapple floats (just like at Magic Kingdom! I’M SOOOO READY TO GO TO DISNEY WORLD AGAIN!!!!) She is awesome.

Dinner: Tonight, Megan made the Oven “Fried” Chicken out of the WW cookbook with some mashed potatoes and brussel sprouts (which is a new favorite in the MacDonald household.) Anyway, all April Fooling aside, it may have been the best meal I have ever eaten (except for when we went to The Salt Lick with my parents and our awesome friends Scott and Tabitha last June. Sorry Megan, but you know thatTexas BBQ will always be the great equalizer in our marriage.) The chicken was perfectly not-fried-but-tasted-fried, the mashed potatoes had the perfect amount of lumpiness and the brussel sprouts were cooked to perfection. AND IT WAS A FREAKIN’ DIET MEAL! Everything was light! For those of you who think you have to sacrifice taste for calories, you are dead wrong. While you do have to get creative every once in a while, the benefits are astronomical.

So that’s all I have for tonight. It was a rejuvenating Sunday for my weight loss journey and for me. It’s a new week with new obstacles. Bring it on. See ya tomorrow.